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[edit] Zippies

[edit] UK/US (1994)

In May of 1994 Wired Magazine published an feature Article titled "Zippies!". The cover of the magazine featured a psychedelic image of a smiling young man with wild hair, a funny hat, and crazy eyeglasses. Written by Jules Marshall, the article announced an organized cultural response to Thatcherism in the British Isles.

"There's a new and rapidly spreading cultural virus ripping through the British Isles. The symptoms of those infected include attacks of optimism, strong feelings of community, and lowered stress levels. Will their gathering in August at the Grand Canyon be the Woodstock of the ‘90s? [1]

The article describes Zippies, who are according to 50-year-old Fraser Clark, "Zen-Inspired Professional Pagans", or "hippies with zip". The group are apparently already well known in the UK where the media had tried to pin various labels on them: cyber-crusties, techno-hippies, and post-ravers. The Zippies leader Fraser Clark intended to bring a Pronoia (psychology) attitude to the United States. This effort was dubbed the Zippy Pronoia Tour.

These Zippies were a new-age kind of hippie who embraced modern paganism, trance music, rave, cyber-tech and enterpreneurism in an effort to bring about a better world.

Counter-cultural roots

UK Zippies identified themselves as a product of UK Rave culture and the British goverment backlash against this culture during the Thatcher administration. The lifestyle of this group involved traveling around the UK to organize and attend counter-culture events. The core group had access to technology (music production and playback systems used by DJs, portable communications for quickly forming and disolving events) and were interested in using it. They had access to designer drugs and were, by and large, interested in the effects of these drugs and trance music on large Rave communities. Rave gatherings were able to form with only a few hours of coordination and then disband almost as quickly. The traffic and noise associated with these events alarmed the English public, and resulted in incidents such as the Battle of the Beanfield. Police and political actions grew to counter a perceived threat to the public safety.

[edit] From Stonehenge to MegaDog

As Rave culture grew througout Great Britain police in urban areas took action to limit access to public areas where events could be staged. One result was a migration of the events to rural settings. Fraser Clark reported on his first visit to Stonehenge in the early ‘70s states that "I came 'round the corner expecting to see a communal food tent and a few hippies, but there in front of me was what looked like the whole Cherokee nation: teepees as far as the eye could see.[2]"

This was the Stonehenge Free Festival which carried on annually from 1972 to 1984. The authorities cracked down on this activity in 1985.

On to Second Summer of Love...

[edit] Zippy Pronioa Tour

[edit] Asia

[edit] References

^  Marshall, Jules, "Zippies!", Wired Magazine, issue 2.05, May 1994